


Love & Science

by lost_spook



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures - Various Authors
Genre: Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-13
Updated: 2012-06-13
Packaged: 2017-11-07 15:35:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/432724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_spook/pseuds/lost_spook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor claims he's not much into romance, but he's even got a 'type': the scientific (or at least intelligent), 'older' woman.  In just about <i>all</i> his incarnations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Apple

**Author's Note:**

> There was once a (fairly light-hearted) article in Doctor Who Magazine about the Doctor having a type - the older, intelligent, preferably scientific/academic females - and ever since, I've noted that it was, really, absolutely right. This is a series of drabbles (mostly equally light-hearted) looking at some of those.
> 
> (Originally written in 2009.)

(Five/Todd, from Kinda)

***

Paradise was too green for him. 

She tempted him with an apple and he made a joke. If all was fair in love and war, he was too good at strengthening his defences and making hasty retreats rather than pressing into battle.

It was saner, but every now and again, he wondered if he should use one of his hearts a little more. Freedom, so all-important to him, was a cruel mistress.

In the end, he closed the box, refused the apple and ran. 

Panna had called him Idiot and he was wise enough to know that she was right.


	2. Space Wheel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Second Doctor: Dr Gemma Corwin from _The Wheel in Space_.

It was always a relief to be plucked from floating around in space and finding that one had oxygen and some sort of ground back under one’s feet.

To be brought back to himself by an sharp-witted, attractive, female medic was an unexpected bonus. The Doctor sat up immediately, smiled charmingly and made his best attempt at flirting. She hid amusement.

He would have tried playing her the recorder if he had been given the chance. She was the sort of woman who would appreciate music, he knew it.

Trouble was, Cybermen were such spoilsports when it came to romance.


	3. Gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The First Doctor: Cameca in the garden with the cocoa beans. ( _The Aztecs_.)

Chesterton had laughed. And what was so amusing about it, hmm? He wasn’t _that_ old.

True, he had laughed himself. The very idea! A primitive human female, of a savage time, on an insignificant planet. He abandoned her gift in Yetaxa’s tomb.

A civilised, intelligent, warm-hearted woman, wasting her end years in boredom; with no one beside her of equal wit. If she were granted even that, with what he knew lay ahead.

He darted out of the TARDIS, his hand closing around the ornament.

He had forgotten for too long: love was precious, no matter where one found it.


	4. He Thinks More of That Car...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Third Doctor: Dr Elizabeth Shaw. (He really, really likes her, but maybe not as much as his two vehicles...)

“I don’t know why you waste your time with that car,” said Liz Shaw.

The Doctor had disappeared underneath it, whistling.

She crouched down. “Doctor? If you’ll come out, I’ve got a question.”

“Fire away, Liz.”

She shook her head. “It’s been a long day. I was going to suggest dinner somewhere, but if you’d rather stay there, covered in grease, that’s up to you.”

“I can’t leave the old girl now,” he said. “You go on, Liz.”

And so she did, as she did completely, in the end.

At least, he named the car after her. _Liz. Elizabeth. Bessie._


	5. Grace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Eighth Doctor: Dr Grace Holloway. (She killed him, he kissed her, she tried to kill him again... I suppose it all makes sense.)

She wouldn’t go with him, even though he kissed her.

Well, that was just _silly_ , he thought. Offered the universe, an intelligent cardiac surgeon chose San Francisco. 

As for her even sillier request that he stay with _her_ … Well, that was ridiculous. Stuck in one little flat with no furniture? 

It would have been a new adventure for him. And they both liked Puccini.

Still, that was it. How long before he’d danced out in his borrowed shoes (that fitted perfectly) to meet the composer himself? How could anyone turn that down?

He sighed, but he admired her for it.


	6. Belated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Tenth Doctor: Dr Martha Jones.

Of course, he regretted nothing. Messy, human emotions - not his scene. Too busy saving the universe and being witty. (Someone had to do it.)

But perhaps the irony did strike him in a moment of melancholy, because she really _was_ his type. So much so, of course, that it would never have worked.

Funny that. He went around the universe admiring clever, scientific females and then fell headlong – well, not that he ever _fell_ , precisely; he wouldn’t go that far – for the complete opposite. Still, life’d be boring otherwise.

But from time to time, maybe he did regret Dr Jones.


	7. Fred

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fourth Doctor: Romana I. She's a Time Lady and she won't take nonsense from a renegade.

She arrived like a lightning bolt down the middle of his life. At the time, he thought it was inconvenient. Meddling Time Lords and Guardians, pah. 

K9, the traitor, defected to her side within hours. Later, he discovered that one of his hearts had done the same. He had been too busy arguing and demonstrating his brilliance to notice.

She left equally without warning and though he took to her new form with enthusiasm, he should have told her how much he’d enjoyed the battle so far.

Still, she was very clever. There was no point in swelling her head.


	8. Cultivation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sixth Doctor: Professor Lasky (All right, so maybe this one would _never_ have worked.)

Misguided, that was the word. It was a waste – a criminal waste of an incredible scientific mind.

Why was it all the brilliant females he ran into lately were insane, amoral or evil? All three in some cases.

And here was Mel pointing him towards the exercise bike again. It truly was a shame, whichever way you looked at it. (No, not the bike… Well, that too.) If only she’d _listened_.

And you could say one thing for Lasky: she’d _really_ have appreciated flowers. (Which would have left the chocolates for him; always a plus).

Yes, it was a shame.


	9. Post-It Notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seventh Doctor: Professor Bernice Summerfield. (She's just what he needed, but he never noticed)

He’d had immense fun organising the wedding, but now Bernice was gone and he was following a paper trail – rejected diary pages, covered in Post-It notes. Some were tantamount to libel – so he would tell her. 

If he saw her again.

Benny entered amidst bitterness – a buffer between him and Ace and made a path through to friendship. She had a metaphorical knack of grabbing him by the brolly and hooking him back from the brink. Infuriating, but essential. 

His safety net had gone, and he worried for the universe. Instead, he had post-it notes of things that never happened.


	10. Perfect/Imperfect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fifth Doctor: Nyssa (and Tegan)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A double-drabble this time, because the Doctor has his little illusions and hypocrisies, like everyone else.

Nyssa was exactly how a female should be, in his opinion. 

Of course, not that he thought of her _that_ sense. He was her guardian in all but name and she was still very young. 

She had a logical, scientific mind, an intelligence not far behind his own and she was _quiet_ and if one must mention these things, pleasing to look at. From a purely objective point of view.

Yes, she was almost perfect. Sadly, even with her bright, enquiring mind she didn’t understand cricket and she had an unfortunate tendency to take lessons from Tegan.

Talking of whom…

*

…Tegan was chained to the wall beside him. “Stop dreaming and get us out of here!”

“It’s rather difficult in this position.” 

Why couldn’t she be more like Nyssa? Her logical mind would understand there was nothing to be done.

“I think I can squeeze this hand through.”

And what good would that do? She was irrational. Although she _was_ from his favourite planet, knew what a train was and liked cricket.

She wriggled a bloody hand free and grinned.

On second thoughts, if she could reach his jacket pocket, they could escape… 

He smiled and joined her in illogic.


	11. Two-Faced

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ninth Doctor: Harriet Jones (MP for Flydale North. He knows who she is. His next regeneration doesn’t seem to).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sort of assuming that the NA idea of the Doctor’s personalities still existing somewhere in his subconscious still holds true… (At least, surely for a bit after regeneration).

Regeneration was a pain. 

One minute he was fine and the next he was a skinny, non-ginger, intolerant moron. Look at what he’d done.

Shame there was no turning the clock back. He had found a politician he really _liked_ on so many levels and this new self had curtailed her term of office (mucking up the whole time line – ta muchly). As a man who’d committed genocide twice over (Time War, okay?) for reasons he thought equally justified, that made him a right hypocrite. 

And _he_ didn’t look back at the hurt on her face.

Great start, new me.


	12. Prototype

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First Doctor: Barbara Wright (And, yes, Barbaras are for Ians, but He Likes Her Too)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to say, presumably the unknown ‘Mrs Who’ set the type, but perhaps she was a cute, fluffy-haired screamer, because that would explain a lot. Especially about Susan. So maybe Barbara set the profile...

1066! 

He thought of Barbara at once. He missed her. Both of them, though they forced their way on board. That was her doing, of course – clever enough to fit the pieces together and the heart to take action.

He was resistant until she’d raged at him (for his behaviour, his ship, things he should have known). From that moment on, he was enchanted. She posed as a goddess with ease. As to changing history, she was the first person he’d found who shared that temptation. Always, she _cared_.

So now he chuckled to himself and wished them both happiness.


	13. One Tiny Detail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Twelfth Doctor: River Song (erm… and Professor Bernice Summerfield).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written long before we found out more about River, or met Eleven, and is largely a very bad joke, based on my initial reaction to Silence in the Library.

There was only one problem. It wasn’t _her_ , of course. She was special. Why else would he go so far as to marry the woman?

She was warm, sharp-witted, admired him – yet wasn’t afraid to put him in his place when he needed it. 

It wasn’t that he knew her fate, either. (Talk about a secret to hide from the wife, though.)

It was merely a note of _déjà vu_ across the centuries. A future archaeologist who kept a diary? Truth was, alarming though it was to admit – he loved River, he’d married River – but he was thinking of Benny.


	14. Stowaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second Doctor: Zoe Heriot (He always hated people who tampered with her mind)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler for The War Games.

He hadn’t invited her in, but he understood her reason for stealing on board.

It wasn’t so far from his reasons for leaving home. She wanted to escape the hole she’d been pegged into, open her brilliant, logical (if a little _erratic_ ) mind to the wider possibilities of the universe. She wanted to experience emotions, not remain a human computer programmed with facts.

And now, _They_ had stolen all that back from her. He hated to think of _Them_ tampering with that mind. (Almost as clever as him, poor Zoe).

He had kissed her goodbye, but she would never remember.


	15. Insanity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eighth Doctor: Professor Bernice Summerfield. (Yes, _that_ incident...)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eight and Benny got a chance to meet before Licensing drove them apart, in _The Dying Days_. Benny got a bit carried away.
> 
> (And I don't know why Benny got repeat appearances in this. It just happened.)

She must have lost her wits, but how to tell her? It was particularly awkward from his current position. He tried a cautious: “I think you must have mistaken me for somebody else.”

There was a snort. “As if I could.”

“But … you never did this before!”

“You never looked like this before.”

“That’s very shallow.”

“You’re _very_ pretty.”

“I don’t think your husband would -”

“Rat. Left me. Don’t get me started on that.”

He found something at last. “Not in front of the cat!”

“Git,” she said, letting him go.

He beamed. Now that was _his_ Benny.


	16. Whodunnit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tenth Doctor: Agatha Christie (He's been a fan all his lives).

This moment had been lifetimes in arriving.

He met her the first time he was stuck on earth; Susan at that ridiculous school. She saved him from daily tedium.

He’d found her again in exile (although not when the Brigadier could see what he was reading).

Now he allowed himself the encounter once a century – finding a title he’d missed was a vanished delight these days.

“You’re holding my hand,” she observed as he dragged her down the corridor.

“Sorry. Force of habit.”

“You’re rather an _odd_ sort of policeman.”

He grinned. Wouldn’t you know? She saw right through him.


	17. Academic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sixth Doctor: Dr Evelyn Smythe. (How did he ever manage without her?)

“You can’t possibly be wrong – or you can’t admit it?”

He glared. “I was a personal friend of his!”

“Oh, and you know everything about everyone you meet, do you? Psychic, no doubt.”

The Doctor swept onward. “I tell you, Sir Thomas More would _never_ have -- Now, where are you going?”

“To find a book I saw the other day, quoting More himself on the subject. You can’t always rely on snap judgements – and historians sometimes have good reasons for their conclusions.”

He followed, still blustering. 

She was a lesson he had not yet learned, academic, but never dull.


	18. Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seventh Doctor: Ray (They both loved vehicles and knew what it was to love and lose in other ways)

He knew what it was to set your heart on a distant star; he understood that look in her eyes. So he danced, this once.

There was a choice. He did not see the future (may that never be) but he was alive to the threads of time that bound the universe. He had plans that she had no part in – Ray, who loved vehicles not wisely but well. If he asked her, they could travel together in happy-go-lucky innocence; a merry romp across the galaxies.

No. There was work waiting. 

So he danced: this once, and let her go.


	19. Little Tin God

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fourth Doctor: Professor Amelia Rumford (It's a true meeting of minds, but there's just one problem...)

He slips into the back of the lecture theatre with a sudden smile; takes off his hat. So she _does_ remember faces.

He stops for a passing ‘hello’ at the end; nothing more.

“You were late,” she says with a sniff. “Did you hear Morgan? He gets all his ideas from outdated texts these days, if you ask me. My survey – that’s a different matter – too practical for Morgan and those stuffed shirts.”

“Oh, absolutely,” he agrees. _Marvellous, simply marvellous_. But, truth be told, she was only ever after one thing.

*

“K9, you old rascal,” he says later.

“Master?”


	20. Runaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eighth Doctor: Mary Shelley (This elopement of sorts has got to be better than the last)

His failings were precisely what he had to offer.

She’d tried the Great Romance as an escape, and found it wanting – shabby, and lacking in idealism and adventure. Poets weren’t ethereal beings and monsters lurked in the hearts of all. She knew that now.

He gave her freedom; a wondrous universe to explore, hand in hand, and he asked nothing else of her battered heart.

In the end it was never enough; he knew that, but it was perfect for this moment. And Mary had to return or the blow to the film industry would be _unthinkable_.

He laughed aloud.


End file.
